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Defining and measuring transnational fields/spaces
José Luis Molina1, Sören Peterman
2 and Andreas Herz
3
1 egolab-GRAFO, Departament d’Antropologia social i cultural, Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona. [email protected], corresponding author; 2 Max-Planck-Institut zur
Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften, Göttingen.
[email protected]; 3 Institut für Sozial- und Organisationspädagogik, Stiftung
Universität Hildesheim. [email protected]
PREPRINT (Version 1) of the article Defining and Measuring Transnational
Social Structures, Field Methods, DOI: 10.1177/1525822X14556254, published
online 1 December 2014
Abstract
Transnational social fields and transnational social spaces are concepts used
interchangeably in transnational literature. Both terms refer to the complex of
connections and practices across borders. In this paper, it will be argued that though
social network approaches are introduced by transnational studies, they inherit often a
metaphorical understanding of social networks. As a result, the potential insights that
the social network analysis might bring to transnational studies are hardly exploited.
Therefore, the first part of the paper shows which relational or social network
perspectives underlie the concepts of transnational social fields and transnational social
spaces. The second part of the paper elaborates the potential benefit of social network
analysis in researching cross-border social fields and spaces in reviewing case studies
and offering different conceptualizations and measures (clustered graphs, diversity
indices) to delineate transnational social formations. While clustered graphs allow
assessing transnational embeddedness, the index of qualitative variation (IQV) can be
used to show variation in transnationality in personal networks. The measures will be
exemplified with the data collected in Barcelona from three groups (Chinese, Sikh and
Filipino, N=25 in each group, 30 alters by ego). Finally, the pros and contras of the
proposal will be discussed.
Acknowledgements
2
Part of this research was funded by the project Perfiles del Empresariado Étnico en
España. Una aproximación a las estrategias, dinámicas y espacios transnacionales del
pequeño empresariado emigrante en la nueva situación económica (ITINERE).
MICINN CSO2009-07057. We would like to thank Steven Vertovec for his support in
developing ideas presented in this paper and his invitation to the first author for visiting
the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. We thank
specially Thomas Faist for his insightful and useful review of an earlier version of this
paper. In any case, we are responsible of all errors that can be found in the text.
1. Introduction
After two decades, transnational studies have contributed to a better understanding of a
wide range of emergent social phenomena that take place across borders. The
transnational perspective, originated in the field of migration studies (Glick Schiller et
al. 1992), has been adopted today by a wide variety of disciplines, covering issues as
diverse as identity, social and economic remittances, ethnic businesses, religion, health,
citizenship and politics (see Vertovec 2009). Possibly, one of the keys explaining this
success is its theoretical potential. From the very beginning, the transnational
perspective was intended not only to improve the understanding of the processes
experienced by migrants and their social networks on the processes of integration in the
host societies and for the development of sending countries (Portes 2001), but to
advance in an analytical framework that was able to encompass the paradoxes of
globalization (Featherstone and Robertson 1997, Eriksen 2007). One of these paradoxes
is the coexistence of growing global processes with the reinforcement of nation-states
and nationalisms as hegemonic frames of representation of cultural diversity and
collective action (Szanton et al. 1995). This intellectual positioning between the network
society (Castells 1996) which implies the decoupling of space and time in modern
experience (Giddens 1984, Harvey 1990, Marcus 1995), and the methodological
nationalism (Wimmer et al. 2002), produced new theoretical concepts such as
transnational social fields (Glick-Schiller and Fouron 1999), and transnational social
spaces (Faist 2000a, Pries 2001). Despite their widespread use and the efforts made by
some authors to elaborate and refine these concepts, they are mostly used
interchangeably, and in a metaphorical sense.
We argue that both concepts are alternative conceptualizations of transnational
phenomena, but complementary perspectives of the same reality. While the field
perspective has been developed by Nina Glick-Schiller and her colleagues (Glick-
Schiller and Fouron 1999, Levitt and Glick-Schiller 2004, Glick-Schiller 2005) the
3
space perspective has been produced by several scholars (Faist 1999, 2000a, 2000b,
2004, 2010; Pries 2001, 2005, 2008; Voigt-Graf 2004, 2005).We suggest that both
concepts adopt the relational paradigm to develop transnational theory by looking at
emergent structures of cross-border formations.
In this paper we intend to further elaborate these cross-border social structures
using social network analysis (SNA), especially personal network methods. Therefore,
the remaining part of the article is divided into four sections. The next section presents a
review of the literature on transnational fields and transnational spaces. Section three
introduces a strategy for operationalising transnational fields/spaces using a personal
network approach. The fourth section presents three case studies in which this proposal
is exemplified and tested. Finally, we draw conclusions and discuss potentials of the
suggested approaches for future studies of transnational fields/spaces.
2. Transnational fields and transnational spaces
The concept of a transnational field was developed out of the study of cross-border
migration and was initially posed (Glick Schiller and Fouron 1999:344) as follows:
They live within a ´transnational social field´ that includes the state from which
they originated and the one in which they settled (…). A social field can be
defined as an unbounded terrain of interlocking egocentric networks. (…) The
concept of “transnational social field” allows us a conceptual and
methodological entry point into the investigation of broader social, economic
and political processes through which migrant populations are embedded in
more than one society and to which they react. (…) The social relationships that
form the substance of transnational social fields include egalitarian, unequal, and
exploitative that often encompass immigrants, persons born in the country of
origin who never migrated, and persons born in the country of settlement of
many different ethnic backgrounds. (Italics added)
In focusing on movements of people and their (potentially multiethnic) social
connections, Glick Schiller and Fouron (1999) address social relations which cross
nation-state borders as constituting transnational social fields. They also point to the
terms of egocentric networks and embeddedness widely used in social network analysis
which will be discussed later. For the span of this article we use synonymously the
terms egocentric networks and personal networks, although technically an egocentric
4
network is often seen as the subset of nodes connected to a given ego within a whole
network (Burt 1992, Borgatti 1997).
On the other hand, the concept of transnational space has been defined as
“configurations of social practices, artifacts and symbol systems that span different
geographic spaces in at least two nation-states without constituting a new
‘deterritorialised’ nation-state” (Pries 2001: 18). The introduction of the geographical
dimension into the discussion shows that in social sciences “the corresponding spatial
units of reference were traditionally considered as ‘naturally given’ by local, national
and global geographic level” (Pries, 2008:5). Thus, the differentiation of the absolutist
and relativist concept of space, “leads to fundamental revisions of the relation between
the units of analysis and the spatial units of reference – the latter cannot be taken for
granted as coherent and contiguous geographical ‘containers’, but have to be considered
as potentially pluri-local and constructed by social practices, symbols and artefacts”
(Pries, 2008:5). In the same vein, Faist (1999) proposed a typology of transnational
spaces organized by the cross-relation between time and embeddedness in both the
sending and receiving country.
We can summarize the theoretical implications of the transnational formation
concept in the following way: it describes the articulation of at least two nation-states
through an asymmetrical emergent structure; this structure is constituted by the
ensemble of social networks of migrants –and not migrants-- unequally embedded in it.
This asymmetrical emergent structure takes advantage of the differences between
nation-states (which in fact explain the migration process) in order to produce new
values through the reduction of transaction costs (Williamson 1975, Faist 2000a, 2000b)
by the unequal embeddedness of actors. In this way, the new social formation allows the
production and flow of resources among countries and creates new capitals (in
Bourdieu’s sense, 1977) that allow its reproduction and development.
In sum, transnational fields and transnational spaces can be conceptualized as
two different perspectives of analysis of the same reality, the first focusing at the
egocentric level (the ensemble of individual ties of migrants), and the second at the
sociocentric level (transnational places and regions connected by social networks of
people). In focusing on movements and practices by actors and phenomena which cross
nation-state borders, both conceptualizations focus on border-crossing empirical
relations. Nevertheless, transnational studies have only sparsely picked up the methods
5
of social network analysis for accomplishing this task (some exceptions are Dahinden
2005, 2009; Herz and Olivier 2012; Vertovec 2009, Vacca 2013), although other
methods for dealing with transnational issues like multi-sited ethnography have been
developed (Marcus, 1995; Köngeter and Wolff, 2012; Pries 2008).
In order to show the adequateness of a social network perspective for
investigating transnational fields/spaces, we first shortly discuss central aspects of social
network analysis and present some case studies. We then develop two specific measures
to identify and measure the transnational structure of social formations out of the
perspective of social networks: clustered graphs and diversity index.
3. Alternatives for identifying and measuring transnational social fields/spaces
The operationalisation of transnational formations suggested here implies a) the use of
personal network methods and data, b) the selection of a focal place or places, and c) the
assessment of the different levels of embeddedness. Let us now study each point
separately.
3.1 Personal network analysis
The application of the personal networks analysis methodology enables us to collect, for
a given set of focal individuals (egos), the corresponding sets of alters elicited with the
aid of one or more name generators. Alters are people connected to ego. Typically,
additional data is collected for every alter nominated by the use of name interpreters. In
addition, the alter-alter pattern of relationships for each ego is also collected with a pair-
tie definition. Finally, in order to collect the interpretations given by informants about
their own personal networks, it is possible to conduct an interview using personal
network visualizations (see Molina et al. 2013; see reflection on gathering personal
network data in Herz and Olivier 2012).
The data collected following this methodology can be analyzed at the relational
level or can be aggregated in different ways. Two sets of measures are obtained from
this data: compositional and structural measures (Cf. Lazarsfeld and Menzel 1961).
Compositional measures refer to the distribution for each ego of the variables collected
with name interpreters. For instance, if we ask the gender and location of each alter, it is
possible to obtain the percentage of men and women for every personal network, and
their geographical distribution. Structural measures refer to the description of the alter-
alter adjacency matrix, i.e., alters’ centrality measures, extant subgroups, and density.
6
What distinguishes personal networks from whole networks is that the
boundaries of the network members are unconstrained – that is, all types of
relationships and institutional settings are allowed (whereas whole networks normally
are restricted to explore a single institutional setting). This makes personal networks
particularly interesting for eliciting transnational ties and levels and types of
embeddedness since personal networks are intended to capture all settings and kinds of
meaningful contacts for individuals.
3.2 Selection of a focal place
David Kyle, in his book Transnational Peasants (2000), studied four villages in
Ecuador: two in the Otavalo region, and the other two next to the city of Cuenca, in the
Azuay region. The two villages in Otavalo showed a pattern of circular migration for
selling textile goods produced in the region along with other marketable products. This
activity reached the astonishing figure of 23 countries visited within one year, mostly in
Europe. In the case of the villages in Azuay he found a flow of irregular migrants to
New York, who could only visit their families when the situation allowed it. This
comparative study shows us that every focal place can have a different transnational
space.
Drawing on the conceptual elaboration performed in the former section we could
identify two transnational spaces: one connecting Cuenca to New York, and the other
connecting Otavalo to cities in Europe (and other regions as well). These two spaces are
not interconnected. The first one could be represented as a tunnel and the second one as
a funnel (these metaphors are used by Kyle, accounting for the span of the transnational
places). Of course, the way around also works, and New York could become the focal
place, and villages in Otavalo or other places the “transnational” sites as well.
Moreover, in order to identify the transnational formations in a selected place it
is necessary to collect personal network data along with geographical information about
alters’ locations (Featherstone et al. 2007). The criteria for selecting individuals are not
specified a priori. They can be people owning a souvenir shop in a tourist destination
(migrants, former migrants or non-migrants), or people from a given nationality
attending a church. The unit of analysis and the sample strategy has to be justified by
the research itself. Once the population of interest has been sampled and their personal
networks have been collected, the levels of embeddedness can be assessed, either in the
focal place, in the transnational place(s) or in both at the same time. It is worth
7
mentioning that if this operation is repeated in the transnational place identified, let us
say, in New York, the transnational field as a whole would not be the same, although a
certain level of redundancy would be expected (see Mazzucato 2009 for a matching
contact methodology in transnational fields). This happens because every place brings
different local contacts to the transnational field which in turn can be connected with
other fields.
3.3 Assessing embeddedness
The concept of embeddedness was initially posed by Polanyi in his work about
the economy as an institutionalized process (1957), starting the Substantivist school of
economic anthropology. The core argument is that economic action is an
institutionalized process that cannot be decoupled from other institutions in the same
society, as neoclassic economy claims. This approach to the study of economic
institutions was later used by Granovetter (1985) to explain the role of economic action
within social network structures, bringing the concept of embeddedness to the center of
sociological debate once again. This theoretical concept has been used in a variety of
fields and levels of analysis (see Zukin and DiMaggio 1990 for a review). In this paper
we will use the term embeddedness as the complex of interdependencies of social
entities within a network (Uzzi 1996). These interdependencies can be analyzed both at
the horizontal and vertical levels (Portes 1993, Schweitzer 1997, Vertovec 2003). The
horizontal level describes the ways in which economic or other types of actions are
influenced by the consideration of other multiple simultaneous institutional ties
connecting people (or organizations and places as well). The vertical level shows the
articulation of ties within greater social or geographical structures.
In the case of transnational fields we could expect to find different levels of
embeddedness of people in places. This variation would explain the existence of a
certain degree of specialization, which would enable the flow of new values among
extant structures and the emergent one. The mixed embeddedness of Islamic butchers in
The Netherlands described by Kloosterman et al. (2002) is a clear example of this.
Thanks to the simultaneous embeddedness in both the local Dutch institutions and the
co-ethnic networks it is possible for them to run the businesses, taking advantage of
both societal (i.e. participation in official organizations), and ethnic resources (flexible
and cheap workforce). Another proxy for capturing different levels of embeddedness
can be the pattern of mobility. In this vein, Dahinden (2010) distinguishes different
8
patterns of mobility among migrant groups in Switzerland -cabaret dancers, Albanian-
speaking migrants and Armenians-, suggesting a typology of transnational spaces based
on the combination of place and mobility. In order to allow the circulation of cabaret
dancers, she argues, some people have to be local. The same phenomenon is described
by Zhou (2004) regarding the Chinese transnational activities in Los Angeles, where
deeper localization has fostered the businesses and contributed to strengthening the
existing ethnic enclave. Finally, in the ethnic enclave of Lloret de Mar (Girona, Spain),
the owners of souvenirs shops tend to be local whereas the employees tend to follow a
pattern of circular migration (see Molina et al. 2014).
In this paper we focus on the Clustered Graph methodology (Brandes et al. 2008,
Lerner et al. 2007, 2008), and furthermore, we suggest the application of a diversity
index (Budescu and Budescu 2012) to transnational personal networks. This index is
intended to capture individual and group variation in the proportions of alters different
countries of residence. Let us now analyze the two proposals.
The Clustered graph consists of representing personal network data according to
some relevant study variables, for instance sending country and host country (see Figure
1). The combination of these two variable form four classes or circles connected among
them. With this fixed and simplified layout, the clustered graph methodology enables a
comparison to be made between individual cases or groups.
--FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE—
The size n(A) of a class A is the number of alters in it. The relative class-size is the
class-size divided by the number of alters in the network. Let m(A,B) denote the number of ties
between class A and class B. The weight w(A,B) of the tie between A and B is defined by
𝑤(𝐴, 𝐵) = 𝑚(𝐴, 𝐵)
√[𝑛(𝐴) ∗ 𝑛(𝐵)]
(1)
The area of the node representing a class is proportional to its relative size; the color-
intensity (darkness) of the node representing a class A is proportional to the intra-class weight
w(A,A), and the thickness and the darkness of the line connecting class A and class B is
proportional to the weight w(A,B).
9
The levels of embeddedness in the host country can be assessed by looking at
the size, internal connections and number of ties with nationals, co-ethnics and other
types of people living in the same country. The categories for grouping individuals are
not fixed beforehand. In addition, transnational relations can be assessed by looking at
the connections with co-ethnics in the sending country. Overall, the clustered graph of a
selected group will give us a picture of the pattern and characteristic of both
transnational relations and local embeddedness –the transnational field.
Another way to address the operationalisation of transnational formations is by
taking into account not only the dichotomy of sending and host country but the
distribution of alters living in countries different from the ego. This can be done by
calculating the diversity index of transnational personal networks. The diversity index is
conceived as follows (see Formula 2).
𝐼𝑄𝑉 =𝐾
𝐾 − 1∗ (1 − ∑ 𝑝𝑖
2
𝐾
𝑖=1
)
K represents the number of categories (i.e. number of countries)
pi is the proportion of observations that fall into a given category I (i.e. proportion of
alters residing in a given country)
(2)
Firstly, the diversity index raises the possibility that two randomly chosen
network members (alters) reside in different countries. It ranges from 0, indicating no
diversity at all (i.e. all alters reside in the same country – not necessarily the ego's
country of residence), to a maximum value lower than 1, indicating highest diversity
(i.e. all alters reside in equal shares in all countries). An advantage of the diversity index
is that it can easily be interpreted as a proportion.
Secondly, the index is not standardized between 0 and 1 because the maximum
value depends on the number of countries, which do not allow comparisons across cases
if the number of countries is different. In order to avoid this pitfall we have developed
an index of qualitative variation (IQV) which is a standardized derivative of the
diversity index that ranges from 0 to 1, and can therefore be compared across different
networks (although in this case the values themselves have no intuitive meaning).
With these two indices the span of the transnational field in terms of diversity of
countries of residence of alters can be assessed. For instance, in the case of the
Ecuadorian networks mentioned above, we could expect a lower value for the Cuenca-
10
New York case (most alters living in Ecuador and some others in New York), and a
high value for the Otavalo-European countries case (alters living in different countries).
In the following section we apply these two methods to three case studies.
4. Sikh, Chinese and Filipino people in Barcelona
The data presented in this section is drawn from a study designed to compare three
collectives of people living in Barcelona from Sikh, Chinese, and Filipino origins
(Molina and Pelissier 2010). The study was funded by the Council of Barcelona and the
ACSAR Foundation in order to detect uncovered social needs. The fieldwork was
conducted in the period November 2008 – April 2009 with a quota sample of 25 cases
in each collective considering the age, sex and residence time in Spain. The interviews
were conducted with the aid of EgoNet (http://sourceforge.net/projects/egonet/), and the
anonymized dataset is publicly available
(http://visone.info/wiki/index.php/Signos_%28data%29). In this section we do not
provide the background information and the qualitative data collected during the
project. We focus, instead, on the potentiality of personal networks analysis in a given
place for eliciting transnational fields and their different levels and types of
embeddedness.
Let us compare the clustered graphs of the three groups (Figure 2).
--FIGURE 2 ABOUT HERE--
The case of Sikhs shows a strong transnationalism taking into account the span
of countries represented (“the funnel”). The case of Filipinos indicates a strong
concentration of contacts among co-ethnics living in Barcelona, and few connections
with the sending country (“the tunnel”). Finally, the Chinese group shows more
nationals in their networks, and a moderate concentration of co-ethnics, basically kin
working in family businesses.
This analysis can be performed at the individual level as well. For instance, for
the Filipino case we can select women working in the domestic service sector and look
11
at their individual clustered graph in order to explore variation in embeddedness at the
gender level (Figure 3).
--FIGURE 3 ABOUT HERE--
Figure 3 shows a similar pattern of adaptation for these women: a strong co-
ethnic cluster, in this case structured by the local Filipino Catholic Church and informal
organizations connected with it, and a few Spaniards/Catalans (from the houses in
which they work), not connected with other Filipinos. In addition, relationships with the
Philippines are very limited (some of them are not visible in this representation).
Clustered graphs are a powerful tool for assessing embeddedness both at the
individual and group levels, and for comparing across cases. Nevertheless, as we have
just mentioned, there are other dimensions of transnational fields that are not captured
by this methodology. One of these is the geographical distribution of the personal
networks.
Figure 4 shows the geographical distribution of alters for the Sikh case. Overall,
the geographical distribution shows a remarkable geographical span of alters’ places of
residence.
--FIGURE 4 ABOUT HERE--
The Filipino case is totally different. As can be assessed in Figure 5, the pattern
of distribution is mostly dyadic between Barcelona and Manila and other places in the
Philippines. Also, the diversity of contacts is lower than in the Sikh case as we could
expect.
--FIGURE 5 ABOUT HERE—
Finally, the Chinese group shows an interesting pattern of local and regional
distribution (Spanish east-coast, and continental China and Taiwan), and a wide span of
countries of residence (Figure 6).
12
--FIGURE 6 ABOUT HERE--
The span of transnational fields (the number of different countries in which
alters live) can be captured with the diversity index explained above. In order to
compare the three cases we can focus on the index of qualitative variation (IQV, see
Table 1).
--TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE—
--FIGURE 7 ABOUT HERE--
The three index distributions show that IQV is highest for Sikhs (median=.5) and
lowest for Filipinos (=.0) whereas the Chinese group (=.3) is in between. This index
confirms the visual representation of the geographical span of the three transnational
fields. It is worth pointing out that “diversity” means, in most cases, that alters belong to
varying degrees to the host country (Spain) or the country of origin. To a lesser extent,
diversity implies that alters reside in a broad range of countries. This is the case for
some Sikhs and a few Chinese (Figure 7).
5. Conclusions and discussion
In this paper we have proposed alternative conceptualizations for transnational social
fields/spaces as emergent network structures. We further suggest that identification and
analysis of the transnational fields/spaces imply the application and use of social
networks data and methods, and the development of a family of indices and strategies in
order to capture variation in embeddedness , and transnational span, among other
dimensions. These indices has been used here as measures of the articulation of
emergent structures connecting societal spaces. In this vein we have shown how
Clustered Graphs and an Index of Qualitative Variation developed here, are powerful
ways of visualizing, analyzing and assessing embeddedness in transnational formations.
It is worth to mention that the two methods consistently show a different pattern
of articulation of the three groups to both Barcelona and their transnational networks,
which are rooted mainly in the Philippines (for the Barcelona-Filipino case), spread
among many countries (for the Barcelona-Sikh case), and showing an intermediate
13
pattern (for the Barcelona-Chinese case). These insights complement the impressions
gathered during the fieldwork of the existence of three different modes of adaptation
(Molina and Pelissier 2010), but enriching enormously the perspective as far as specific
transnational formations can only be partially observed. Only through a systematic
social network approach these transnational formations can be measured and analyzed.
Among the advantages of these methods is their scalability. Both methods allow
individual and group-level analysis and comparison. This helps researchers to combine
ethnographic information, statistical data and individual-group description in a single,
mixed method strategy (Creswell 2003, Holstein 2009).
We are well aware that collecting personal network data is an expensive and
time-consuming research strategy, and that it is not always feasible depending on the
place and the population under study. Nevertheless, the advantages of network data for
transnational studies are undeniable because it provides an empirical approach to the
identification of a myriad of transnational formations which, in turn, can be analyzed at
a higher level in order to contribute to the theoretical development of the field. Possibly,
the universal use of smartphones and the corresponding geolocalisation of alters will
enable, in the future, the study of transnational fields in new and innovative ways. The
authors do believe that an open science endeavor of this nature, concerned with ethics
and reliability, will enable transnational studies to continue to contribute decisively to
gaining a better understanding of our time.
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19
FIGURES
Figure 1. Clustered Graphs and the assessment of embeddedness.
20
a b c
Sikhs
N=25. M=6.5 years of
residence
Filipino
N=25. M=8.3 years of
residence
Chinese
N=25. M=13 years of
residence
Figure 2. The personal networks of Sikhs (a), Filipino (b) and Chinese (c) people in
Barcelona. Size indicates the number of people in each class, darkness indicates density
and its standard deviation is indicated by the grey scale.
21
a. 30 years old, 3 years of residence. b. 38 years old, 1 year of residence.
c. 45 years old, 9 years of residence. d. 28 years old, 9 years of residence.
Figure 3. Clustered graph of Filipino women working in the domestic service
sector in Barcelona.
22
Figure 4. The geographical distribution of alters for the Sikh case in
Barcelona.
23
Figure 5. The geographical distribution of alters for the Filipino case in
Barcelona.
24
Figure 6. The geographical distribution of alters for the Chinese case in
Barcelona.
25
Figure 7. Diversity of alters’ countries of residence (frequencies of IQV).
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8
Chinese
Filipinos
Sikhs
Chinese
Filipinos
Sikhs
26
TABLES
Statistic Filipinos Chinese Sikhs
min 0.000 0.000 0.000
p25 0.000 0.070 0.252
median 0.000 0.301 0.485
p75 0.156 0.441 0.553
max 0.556 0.626 0.691
mean 0.101 0.280 0.408
standard deviation 0.161 0.207 0.210
skewness 1.825 -0.057 -0.865
kurtosis 5.307 1.682 2.528
N 660 510 690
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the Index of Qualitative Variation (diversity of
alters’ countries of residence).